By MARK REY MONTEJO
Alex Eala’s youthful exuberance was no match to the veteran poise of Tatjana Maria of Germany and absorbed a stinging 7-5, 6-2 loss in the second round of the Guadalajara 125 Open in Mexico on Thursday, Sept. 5 (Manila time).
Eala showed flashes of brilliance in the first set but the 37-year-old Maria, a Wimbledon semifinalist, banked on her vast experience to emerge victorious in a match that lasted only one and half hour.
A win could have set the 19-year-old Filipina tennis star to a quarterfinals battle with fellow unseeded Australian Olivia Gadecki in this Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 125 competition.
Gadecki survived Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini’s second-set counter, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Maria, a 3-time WTA singles champion, broke Eala’s serve six times despite dropping three of her own.
It was a double blow for Eala as she and Australian Kimberly Birrell bowed to Hungary’s Fanny Stollar and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter, 6-4, 6-4, in the doubles quarters that same day.
